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Overview

Photos and Description of this 4 bedroom holiday home in Effingham

4 bedroom, 2 bath with a "cozy cottage" feel on great water

This 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom retreat provides you with everything you need to have fun at the lake this year! Great location on the water of Shumway Cove where you can relax in the water or drop a line in to fish. Newly renovated dock gives you the opportunity to bring your own boat or rent one at the local marina. The cove is the perfect place to learn how to waterski, wakeboard, or tube. There are also two kayaks & a canoe that will be available for use. Not far from the dock is a fishing area that is really neat to explore...especially for kids. We have seen a lot of beavers & turtles getting sun on logs.

The home sleeps 8 comfortably in beds but if you bring an air mattress or sleeping bags it can accommodate more. This is a lake house, we want to fit as many people as we can to enjoy the lake! The kitchen is equipped with everything you will need during your stay. A new TV with DirectTV programming in the living room can be seen from all main areas of the lower level. A washer & dryer is available for your use as well. We have provided detergent but if there is a special kind you prefer, feel free to bring that along. The home has central air conditioning & heat. We do NOT have wi-fi. The lake is a place to get away...not to work! If you need connect there is a Starbucks nearby that has free access.

Outside there is large deck off the house that is great for entertaining or eating a meal. We have a charcoal grill on the deck for your use to grill out. There is a fire pit with plenty of wood for your convenience. A short path leads down to the boat dock from the large deck, there you will find Adirondack chairs for relaxation & floats for use in the water. There is a storage shed near the driveway & also down by the boat dock that has floats & noodles for use. Please feel free to use anything that is in the sheds, just make sure they get put back. (or let us know if they get damaged so we can replace) Our dock ends right after the storage container on the dock. Please be respectful of the neighbors & their dock and don't go past the storage shed.

We use this home as well as our home away from home retreat with our family. Anything you may find in the fridge as far as condiments or in the pantry or freezer, was food that we may have bought for use during our stay. Everyone is more than welcome to consume these items, but please do not throw anything away unless it has expired/gone bad.

We want to invite anyone who wants to enjoy Lake Sara to its fullest to come relax! We strive to make your experience the best it can be. We hope to see you soon!

A couple notes:

The boat in the lift is not for rental use, there are a couple marinas on the lake that offer boat rentals. Please respect our home as you would your own. Thank you for understanding.

About The Cox Family

We are a family of 5 from right outside of Champaign, IL. Todd grew up coming to Lake Sara on the weekends in the Spring & Summers with his family. His family throughout the years owned two properties on the lake. One of which has now been bull dozed down to make room for a much larger lake home on a great tip point! Amber is originally from Wisconsin (Go Pack Go) but was never able to enjoy a lake as beautiful as Lake Sara.

We really enjoy continuing the tradition with our children and having our families continue to enjoy the lake as well. Our children absolutely love the lake and love bringing their friends and cousins to enjoy it with them. It gives us a chance to all be together without the use of modern day electronics! We almost didn't even get a TV at the rental!

The Cox Family purchased this house in 2014

Why The Cox Family chose Illinois

We wanted a place that we all could enjoy, relax, sleep a good amount of family members/guests, and a place that had awesome neighbors (since the boat docks are closer than we would've originally preferred). Before we purchased we met a few of the neighbors and they just seemed to be the best. We couldn't ask for a better cove or better neighbors. With this being said, please be respectful of them when renting the home. Know your boundaries of the property and the activity level in late hours of the day.

What makes this house unique

A Quiet cove with the fishing area nearby which is an added bonus in our opinions. So much exploring to do and not a lot of activity.

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The property was nice and the price was fair. The place didn't have an Iron and I had to go everywhere wrinkled. That was the only wrinkle we experienced

Review Submitted: Oct 5, 2016

Date of Stay: Sep 2016

Source: VRBO, from HomeAway

Owner's Response: Hello! Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to leave us your feedback. We apologize for not having an iron and ironing board. We normally haven't needed one nor have we had many parties come for weddings! But now, we definitely see that it is a necessity to have in the home and we will get one added as soon as possible. We appreciate you letting us know so we can make this feature accessible to future renters.
We hope other than that you enjoyed your stay and we will see you back in the future!

Perfectly beautiful weekend.

Lake Sara is a clean and beautiful lake. We love it there and we are so thankful for those that open their homes so everyone can access and enjoy. The house is easy to access and very comfortable. Kids of all ages enjoyed the kayaks in the quite little cove. The close proximity to the city made it easy to have a quick pizza dinner on our night of arrival and the grill let us have a more traditional lake BBQ on Sunday afternoon. The only note I would leave for future renters is we were only able to find youth life jackets. As a precaution some adults wanted to have a life jacket with them as they swam and kayak and we could not find them on the property.

Review Submitted: Aug 29, 2016

Date of Stay: Aug 2016

Source: VRBO, from HomeAway

Owner's Response: We are so happy to hear you enjoyed the Lake and we appreciate your amazing review! Yes, most of our adult life jackets were recently put into the boat that is up in the lift because we needed them while we were on the lake and forgot to take them back out. We apologize about that. I will make sure to put a couple up in the house for future renters. We also do have noodles and floats up in the shed for flotation use in the lake as you swim!
We hope to see you again in the future. The Cox's

Enjoyed Lake Sara and lakefront house, with shade trees

Great new memories at your home on the water! The shade trees were wonderful. We toasted marshmallows one night, and went out to the restaurant Zona's on the lake another. We loved boating around on Lake Sara (we brought our own boat, but you can rent at marina). We were glad we brought some of our own floats for the sunny days off the dock. Inside was nice for hanging out also -- watched USA compete in Olympics, and we could swivel the TV around to wherever we were sitting.

There are plenty of beach towels and fans for bedrooms, so next time I will leave those at home.

I agree with other reviewers that that upstairs bedrooms have a very steep stairs, not good for very young or anyone unsteady on feet -- no handrails at top. Our teens had no trouble. Also I would say the house sleeps 4-6 comfortably.

Thanks so much Amber and Todd. We had a wonderful time.

Review Submitted: Aug 15, 2016

Date of Stay: Aug 2016

Source: VRBO, from HomeAway

Owner's Response: Thank you so much for your review! We appreciate your kind words so much and that your family enjoyed their stay at Lake Sara. We hope to see you in the future.

The home was perfect for our family of 10!

We enjoyed a most relaxing week long stay! We cooked all our meals in and found the kitchen to be stocked with all the dishes/utensils we needed. It was awesome to have all the linens, bath towels and swim towels that we could ever need and to have the washer and dryer to help keep up with our fun!

The house is located in a quiet cove. We basically had that part of the lake to ourselves. There was plenty of room to dock our two fishing boats and noodles and tubes for all.

Thank you to the Cox family!

Review Submitted: Aug 2, 2016

Date of Stay: Jul 2016

Source: HomeAway

Owner's Response: Thank you so much for providing our lake rental with such a heartfelt review. We really love hearing about the amazing times our guests have! We are so happy to hear you enjoyed the lake and that the rental had everything you needed during your stay..that is certainly what we aim for.
We hope to see you in the future!

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